Caricom leaders have secured an agreement from US President George Bush to extend the Caribbean Basin Initiative. The CBI was launched in 1983 and offers a package of trade benefits to a number of Caribbean and Central American countries to export textile and other manufactured products to the United States, without being subject to US import tariffs. It was one of the key issues in talks Wednesday between regional leaders and the US president. Security, especially regarding counter-terrorism and anti-narcotics was the other central issue discussed. CBI extended Coming out of the meeting Caricom leaders reported that they had achieved an agreement from the US President to extend the Caribbean Basin Initiative which is due to come to an end in September 2008. It was just yesterday that the Barbados Prime Minister Own Arthur, cautioned against terminating the CBI. He had noted then, that to end the preferential trade program while, at the same time, "other regions in this hemisphere have stable long-lasting trade relations with the United States", would be counter productive. The Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning welcomed the move by the United States, although he said there were elements which still need to be negotiated and fine tuned. Mr Manning also announced that he outlined to the US President his suggestion for a region-wide security net as a deterrent to potential threats of terrorism, and to combat narcotics trafficking. More meetings The Prime Minister of Grenada Dr Keith Mitchell said there was consensus on the need to have more regular get-togethers. It’s been ten years since Caricom leaders have had a top level meeting with a US President. The last such gathering was with then-President Bill Clinton in Barbados in 1997. Dr Mitchell said President Bush gave a commitment to “engage with the region on a more regular basis, than they’ve been doing to date.” Reprinted from bbccaribbean.com